
Class C M I Ql 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



THE 

PROMISED 

GIFT 

By Rev. G. A. McLaughlin 



AUTHOR OF 



'Inbred Sin," "Old Wine in New Bottles," "A Living 

Sacrifice," "A Clean Heart," "Saved and Kept," 

"The Vine and the Branches," "Commentary 

on St. Luke," "Commentary on St. John." 



1906 

The Christian Witness Co. 

151 Washington St., Chicago, 111. 

36 Bromfield St., Boston, Mass. 



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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

MAY 31 1906 



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Copyright, 1906. 

BY 

The Christian Witness Co. 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page. 
A Remarkable Utterance 7 

CHAPTER II. 
A Remarkable Utterance (Continued) 18 

CHAPTER III. 
For the Children of God 32 

CHAPTER IV. 
For the Children of God (Continued) 38 

CHAPTER V. 
The Special Work of the Spirit 42 

CHAPTER VI. 
Not a Gradual Process 47 

CHAPTER VII. 
Power for Service ... 51 

CHAPTER VIII. 
A Definite Experience 56 

CHAPTER IX. 
Not For Sale 62 

CHAPTER X. 
It Is Not Dangerous 66 



CHAPTER XI. 

Page 
The Blesser Himself 71 

CHAPTER XII. 
Our Specialty 75 

CHAPTER XIII. 
He Loves to Bestow It 83 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Before We Die 86 

CHAPTER XV. 
"For Special Work and Workers Only". 90 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Argument of Jesus 96 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Asking and Receiving 100 



PREFACE. 

The author puts forth this little volume with a 
great degree of diffidence, in view of the fact that 
there are so many other larger volumes on this 
subject written by those who are wise and more 
experienced in these things. 

But he has felt a great soul pressure as he has 
meditated on this theme, which he has been una- 
ble to resist. Consequently another volume has 
been issued when he had fully resolved to quit 
the business of writing books. 

The favor that his other little books on devo- 
tion have met and the souls who have testified to 
spiritual uplifting through these books, has given 
him the confidence to try it again. 

These books have been given to the cause with- 
out any financial remuneration. They have been 
a pure labor of love, and if they do no further 
good, he has the assurance in his heart that they 
have all been intended to glorify God and help 
men. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER I. 

A REMARKABLE UTTERANCE. 

One of the most remarkable utterances of Him 
who "spake as man never spake," was, "If a son 
shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will 
he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he 
for a fish give him a serpent ? Or if he shall ask 
an egg f will he offer him a scorpion ? If ye then, 
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children, how much more shall your Heav- 
enly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
Him?" 

This passage of scripture is like a great man- 
sion house on a lofty eminence out of whose win- 
dows the whole country may be swept in all di- 
rections by the eye of those who love grand 
views. 

We do not know of any passage of the same 



8 THE PROMISED GIFT 

length in the New Testament that contains so 
much sound doctrine. The more one studies it 
the more profound its depths appear. Notice 
some of its clear teachings. 

i. It is the connecting link between the Old 
and New Testaments. 

The GREAT promise of The Old Testament 
was the gift of The Holy Ghost. There were 
many promises given under the Old Dispensation, 
but the gift of The Holy Ghost was not only the 
highest, but it was that to which all the dispensa- 
% tions pointed as their climax. Consequently Jesus 
calls it in his last address before He left his disci- 
ples, "THE Promise of The Father/' In this prom- 
ise all the others were swallowed up. It was the 
center to which they all converged. As surely as 
the dispensation of four thousand years under 
God, the Father, prepared the way for and culmi- 
nated in the short dispensation of thirty-three 
years under The Son, so surely they both were the 
grand preparation for The promise of The Fath- 
er, the great and crowning blessing, not only of 
this, the Dispensation of The Holy Spirit under 
which we live, but of our holy religion, for all 
time, until His people shall be glorified. 

That this was THE Promise of The Father un- 



THE PROMISED GIFT 9 

der the Old Dispensation may clearly be seen in 
the predictions of the prophets. 

Ezekiel gives it thus, 'Then will I sprinkle 
clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean. From 
all your filthiness and from all your idols will I 
cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, 
and a new spirit will I put within you and I will 
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and 
I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put 
my spirit within you and cause you to walk in 
my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and 
do them" (Ezek. 36: 25-27). Here the Promise 
of the Father is alluded to in the phrase, "I will 
put my spirit within you." Isaiah says, "I will 
pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods up- 
on the dry ground" (Isa. 44: 3). Joel says, "It 
shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out 
my spirit upon all flesh" (Joel 2: 28). Zechariah 
says, "And I will pour upon the house of David, 
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit 
of grace and of supplications" (Zech. 12: 10). 

God, the Father, was speaking through these 
and other prophets all along under the Old Dis- 
pensation, foretelling this wonderful gift. It was 
also symbolized in the types and imagery of The 
Old Testament. 



10 THE PROMISED GIFT 

The Old Dispensation was passing away, but 
this promise was yet unfulfilled. In its closing 
hours the last prophet came. He was a fiery man 
like Elijah of old. His name was John. He made 
a great stir among the people. He commanded 
them to forsake their sins and be baptized. But 
he was not the one who should bring the GREAT 
GIFT. He prophesied that it was yet to be given 
saying, "I indeed baptize you with water unto re- 
pentance, but He that cometh after me is might- 
ier than I, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to 
bear He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire" (Matt. 3: 11). This he prophesied 
concerning Jesus, who was to be the Great Bap- 
tizer. 

And now Jesus had come. About a year after 
John made this great statement, Jesus having in 
the meantime called his disciples, begins to in- 
struct them preparatory to their reception of THE 
gift. This seems to be the first lesson He gave 
them on this subject under the familiar figure of 
a parent, feeding a hungry child. He tells them 
that The Father is more willing to give them The 
Holy Ghost than they could possibly be to feed 
their hungry children. 

Thus Jesus binds together both dispensations 



THE PROMISED GIFT II 

by urging The Promise of the Old as a living ex- 
perience of the New. 

Thus He teaches us that the Bible is not two 
separate volumes, one of which is to be consid- 
ered of less account, but one grand volume, whose 
parts are not to be separated but preserved and 
revered in its entirety. 

2. In this passage Jesus clearly states the doc- 
trine of The Holy Trinity. 

Some people affect inability to see this doctrine 
in the word of God. But here we have the three 
persons of the Trinity clearly and distinctly re- 
ferred to. 

Jesus, the Second Person, declares that God, 
the First Person, will give the Holy Spirit, the 
Third Person, to those who ask. Could the three 
persons be more clearly distinguished? 

3. Jesus here manifests himself as a holiness 
preacher. At the close of a service at a camp 
meeting, the writer was approached by a party 
who offered this objection, "You emphasize holi- 
ness a great deal. Why did not Jesus preach up- 
on the subject ?" Our reply was that it was the 
very subject that he especially emphasized. It 
was his theme not only in this passage, but all 
through His ministry. 



12 THE PROMISED GIFT 

In His first sermon he declared in the most 
beautiful promise on record, "Blessed are the pure 
in heart for they shall see God." He also said, 
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness." In the same sermon He also 
said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Fath- 
er which is in heaven is perfect." When the 
Scribe asked Him what the great commandment 
of the law was, He replied that it was the law of 
perfect love, viz. : "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy 
God, with all thy heart." He rebuked the Phari- 
sees for their lack of holiness by saying "that 
they made the outside of the cup and platter clean 
but within were full of uncleanness." He likened 
them in their heart corruption to whited sepul- 
chres. They had hearts as unclean as sepulchres 
while they had an outward ceremonial appearance 
as pure as a whitewashed sepulchre. Then He 
told these apparently holy people that God made 
the inside of man as truly as the outside and re- 
quired that it be pure. He prayed just before go- 
ing to Gethsemane and Calvary that these disci- 
ples should become holy. "Sanctify them through 
thy truth," is the central petition of His great 
prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of 
John's Gospel. His great talk before His cruci- 



THE PROMISED GIFT 1 3 

fixion was that the Comforter would some to 
them to abide. (See the fourteenth, fifteenth and 
sixteenth chapters of John.) On the last day, 
that great Day of the Feast, He stood up and 
cried (so anxious was He that all should hear it), 
"If any man thirst let him come unto me and 
drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture 
saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
water." St. John adds an explanation thus, "This 
spake He of The Spirit which they, that believe 
on Him should receive" (John 7: 38-39). In the 
parable of The Vine and the Branches, he said, 
"Every branch in me that bringeth forth fruit, 
He purgeth (cleanseth, R. V.) it, that it may 
bring forth more fruit." 

Who will say that Jesus did not make a spe- 
cialty of holiness in His preaching? And if He 
did how can his preachers do anything less ? We 
have often noticed that the cry against making a 
specialty of this does not come from those who 
are very earnest in persuading men to receive The 
Spirit. God has given us but one book and that 
makes a specialty of holiness, for it is a treatise 
on that subject. It tells of a holy heaven and 
that holiness is the specialty which will admit us. 
It also says that the way to it is a holy way. If 



14 THE PROMISED GIFT 

the ministry were not ordained of God to show 
His people how to be ready to exchange worlds 
at any time, and to be constantly urging it upon 
them, we are at a loss to know what God has put 
them in the work for. 

4. Jesus here urges young converts to seek 
The Holy Spirit. The question will suggest itself 
to some who read this, Were the disciples regen- 
erate men at this time ? It may seem an uncalled 
for digression to take up this question at this 
point, but it is an important one, and right here 
may be just the proper place to take it up. 

We are certain that it will not be controverted 
by any one, that Jesus called these disciples from 
that little band, who were the disciples of John, 
the Baptist. These were the converts of John. 
This may be seen by the following passage, "The 
next day John seeth Jesus coming to him, and 
saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away 
the sin of the world'' (John 1: 29). Again in 
verse 35 : "Again the next day after, John stood 
and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus 
as he walked he saith, Behold the Lamb of God." 
One of these two disciples was Andrew. The two 
then brought Peter to Jesus. Then others of 
John's disciples came to Jesus and the twelve 



THE PROMISED GIFT 1$ 

were called to be His disciples. Had these men 
become regenerate men during their discipleship 
with John in the six months of his preaching? 
We believe they had. John was preaching as 
clear and emphatic a gospel of regeneration as 
any of our modern pulpits preach or can preach. 

We believe he was preaching a more stalwart 
kind of religion than a large mass of the pulpits 
preach to-day. We shall reserve the discussion 
of just what he preached for another chapter. 

Let us see just what Jesus had been preaching. 
He had been preaching, "Repent for the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4: 17). He had 
been insisting that men must be regenerated in 
order to see the kingdom of God. He told Nico- 
demus, "Except a man be born again he can not 
see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). So regen- 
eration was not a doctrine unpreached and unex- 
perienced until Pentecost as some have imagined. 
Do you suppose that Jesus would have been so 
emphatic with Nicodemus and allowed his disci- 
ples to get along without the new birth? Who 
believes that Jesus would have allowed these men 
to preach the gospel and cast out devils and yet 
be without the experience that he declared that 
Nicodemus, the great doctor of the law, must 



l6 THE PROMISED GIFT 

have. Jesus had also been telling men that their 
sins were forgiven, as they trusted him. He said 
to the paralytic, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" 
(Mark 2:5). Could he have allowed his gospel 
to be preached by his disciples and they yet un- 
forgiven when he was in the business of forgiv- 
ing men's sins ? It is harder to believe these men 
were unsaved than to believe that they were 
saved. 

Again, who that is candid is ready to believe 
that Jesus was with his disciples the three years 
before Pentecost, and was unable or unwilling to 
have them saved when he was urging salvation 
on others? 

The people who take the ground that these men 
were unregenerate, must believe that Jesus em- 
ployed unsaved men to preach the gospel which 
they themselves had failed to experience. One pas- 
sage is sufficient to explode the unscriptural no- 
tion that they were not renewed men until Pente- 
cost. Although we might give many others. We 
quote it and then leave this point for the time be- 
ing. In the seventeenth chapter of John, verse 
twelve, He says of his disciples, "Those whom 
thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is 
lost." They were therefore saved. If a person is 



THE PROMISED GIFT 1/ 

given by God The Father to His beloved Son, and 
is not lost but is kept by Jesus himself, we must 
conclude that he is saved. What other proof 
would a candid man n^ed of the regeneration of 
these men? 



l8 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER II. 

A REMARKABLE UTTERANCE (CONTINUED). 

How sadly mistaken are those people who say 
that it discourages young converts to urge them 
to seek the grace of entire sanctification. Such 
statements reveal ignorance of spiritual life on 
the part of the objector, which gives rise to this 
strange notion. No man who is really converted is 
afraid of getting too much of the salvation of 
God. 

It did not confuse the converts of Jesus then, 
and it does not now. No doubt it would prove 
very confusing to man-made converts, for man- 
made converts need God's salvation. It never 
discourages a man who has something good to tell 
him that he can have more of it, or something 
better. 

We have great sympathy for those people who 
do not want any more religion, for we are certain 
that they have a poor kind, or they would want 
more. It follows as a logical conclusion, that if 



THE PROMISED GIFT H) 

we do not want any more we have no religion 
worth having now. We advise people who are 
discouraged by being offered more, to get rid 
of the kind of religion that they have and get a 
kind that is so good that they will want all they 
can get of it, and will want all the hindrances to it 
removed. It never discourages a man who has one 
dollar to be told that he can have another. It 
never discourages the man clearly converted to 
tell him that he has seen only the smallest part of 
what God has in store for him. 

Jesus therefore tells these saved men that they 
are eligible under certain conditions to the gift 
of The Holy Ghost. 

We notice that the apostles also urged this up- 
on young converts. Paul writes to the Thessa- 
lonians who had been converted less than a year, 
and who were enjoying salvation, calling their at- 
tention to the fact that "This is the will of God, 
your sanctification." He also adds, "God hath 
not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness. " 
He also closes the Epistle praying, "The God of 
peace, Himself, sanctify you wholly." Peter also 
says to the children of God, "As obedient chil- 
dren not fashioning yourselves according to the 
former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which 



20- THE PROMISED GIFT 

hath called you is holy so be ye also holy, for it 
is written, be ye holy for I am holy" (I. Peter i : 
14-16). In our holiness ministry of a score of 
years we have never seen a young convert for 
this cause discouraged, but we have seen some 
who might have been saved from backsliding if 
some one had only instructed them concerning 
this "More excellent way." 

John Wesley probably had under his care more 
converts than any man since the Christian Era 
began. He is good authority on this subject. He 
says in a letter to Thomas Rankin, first superin- 
tendent of American Methodism, "I have been 
thinking lately a good deal on one point, wherein, 
perhaps we have all been wanting. We have not 
made it a rule, as soon as ever persons -are justi- 
fied to remind them of 'going on to perfection.' 
Whereas this is the very time preferable to all 
others. They have then the simplicity of little 
children ; and they are fervent in spirit ready to 
cut ofif a right hand or to pluck out the right eye. 
But if we once allow this fervor to subside, we 
shall find it hard enough to bring them again even 
to the point." 

5. This remarkable passage shows Jesus ex- 
horting young preachers to obtain this gift. He 



THE PROMISED GIFT 21 

had just a little previous to this, ordained them, 
and has sent them out to preach the gospel and 
heal the sick and cast out devils. Healing was 
practiced by the Apostles before Pentecost, there- 
fore the gift of healing is not entire sanctification, 
nor one of its results, and is not of so much im- 
portance. So the assertion of some that Pente- 
cost was simply the gift of power to work mira- 
cles is a mistake. The disciples did this before 
Pentecost. They did some good work before 
they received the gift of The Holy Ghost at Pen- 
tecost, but how much greater works afterwards ! 
Jesus was so desirous that His preachers should 
receive this gift, that He prayed for their sanctifi- 
cation before He went through Gethsemane and 
Calvary and after his resurrection, urged them to 
receive The Holy Ghost, and in his farewell ad- 
dress told them not to leave Jerusalem without 
it. 

We ought therefore to be most intensely inter- 
ested that our young preachers should at once 
come to this blessed crisis of experience. After 
all has been said, that can be, as to the import- 
ance of education and culture, the gift of The 
Holy Ghost is the chief and absolute essential for 



22 THE PROMISED GIFT 

the furnishing of the ministry that it may be what 
God intended. 

Where we have one theological seminary we 
ought to have a dozen Pentecostal Seminaries to 
teach and explain the doctrine and to be held sa- 
cred, as the places where the ministry tarry until 
they have realized the gift. With the odds that 
the disciples had against them, they needed some- 
thing more than education to fit them for their 
life work. And with the great forces that are 
arrayed against the cause of God to-day, can we 
get along with less than the equipment they had ? 
The Methodist bodies have all of them very ap- 
propriately demanded of their candidates for or- 
dination, a solemn promise to seek this gift. 
Would that is had become something more than a 
mere form, as in so many cases. 

6. Jesus teaches that the great petition of truly 
regenerate persons is for The Gift of The Holy 
Ghost. It is interesting here to note the connec- 
tion of this verse with the preceding verses (Luke 
ii : i-io). This is the most important passage 
in relation to the doctrine of prayer in the whole 
Bible. Here the Great Teacher, in answer to the 
request of His disciples, teaches them how to 



THE PROMISED GIFT 2,3 

pray. He says more as to the nature of prayer 
than in any other of His recorded utterances. 

First He gives the form of prayer, commenc- 
ing with the well-known words, "Our Father 
which art in heaven. " 

He then gives a parable teaching the spirit of 
perseverance which we should exercise in prayer. 
He likens the perseverance which we need to ex- 
ercise, to that of a man who routs one of his 
friends from his bed at midnight, to aid him in 
entertaining another friend, who has come to him 
in his journey and must be fed. Then He closes 
this address on prayer with a most unique illus- 
tration of a loving parent feeding his hungry 
child. And declares that much more does the 
Father delight to give The Holy Spirit to those 
who ask Him. 

We have then in this passage the form, the 
persistence in asking and the great blessing that 
all true prayer will lead to in the experience of 
one who is truly regenerate. That great blessing 
is The Gift of The Holy Spirit. The prayers of 
all people who remain regenerate for any length 
of time will culminate in this blessing. 

In other words, as the true children of God, we 
will not only use the form, persevere in mighty 



24 THE PROMISED GIFT 

faith, but we will make The Gift of The Holy 
Spirit our great petition. It is just as natural 
for a truly saved man to pray for The Gift of The 
Spirit, as for a hungry child to ask for food. 

There is begotten in the heart of every believer 
as intense a desire for The Gift, as there is in a 
healthy child intense desire for food. A man 
who does not want this gift is either not regener- 
ate or is in a spiritually dying condition. God in- 
tends that a saved man shall never be satisfied un- 
til he has received this gift. 

We do not wish to be understood that every 
convert prays definitely or specifically for this 
gift, in just so many words. Hungry children 
cry for food long before they know the name of 
it. There are thousands of God's dear children 
who are like a child crying for that which his 
soul craves, even when they have never heard 
any preaching or testimony to the effect that it 
may be theirs in realization. In many a heart, 
that has never heard a sermon on holiness, there 
is this undefined want. The Holy Spirit is ever 
urging such people to pray for satisfaction of 
soul. 

No one yet heard a sincere soul pray, "O, Lord, 
make me almost right. " Such a prayer would be 



THE PROMISED GIFT 25 

a burlesque. A truly saved man prays for a heart 
free from everything wrong. No man can be a 
Christian and pray for anything less. 

Why does a Christian thus pray? Because he 
has been born of The Spirit and his life is under 
the tutorship of The Spirit, who inspires this 
prayer as well as his heart hunger. Here is the 
philosophy of what we are maintaining. All true 
prayer is inspired by The Spirit. "For we know 
not what we should pray for as we ought but The 
Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which can not be uttered" (Rom. 8: 
26). He inspires within us the prayers He de- 
signs to answer. 

Hence many sincere Christians have been led 
into the experience of this great gift without a 
human teacher. They were determined to have 
a satisfying religion. Cost what it might, they 
persevered, blindly, eagerly, persistently and suc- 
cessfully, until they got as many loaves as they 
needed to satisfy them and to feed their neigh- 
bors, as did the man in the parable. And we have 
known people who so felt their need of receiving 
from the Master enough to feed their perishing- 
neighbors and friends that like the man in the 
midnight hour they persisted through, asked, 



26 THE PROMISED GIFT 

sought and knocked until the Master gave them 
the soul food they needed. Let no man call this 
fanaticism, for honest souls without any human 
teacher have read their Bibles and prayed through 
and received the gift. No one can blame a hun- 
gry soul for thus praying, when they are so hun- 
gry, and their Bibles tell them that God has a 
satisfying portion. And certainly no one dares 
blame Him who gave it. Let us be careful then 
how we criticise. 

Shall we criticise the Word of God that prom- 
ises soul satisfaction? Shall we criticise The 
Spirit, who has created such a hunger ? Or shall 
we criticise Him who answered the prayer ? And 
yet thousands of professed Christians are* look- 
ing on such experience as fanaticism. 

We have known of many such cases where peo- 
ple had this experience and did not even know 
the Bible name for it. When some one came 
along and preached on the subject, they were 
glad to hear the name of their experience. They 
liked it all the better when they knew the name. 
As some one says before that they were like a 
person eating honey in the dark. They were 
glad to know that the name of it was honey. 

A case of this kind came under the writer's 



THE PROMISED GIFT 2*J 

own observation, which is so good that he can- 
not forbear relating - it, and for the truth of which 
he can vouch. 

A good, aged German sister had lost eleven 
children. It is a pathetic sight to look upon 
that row of eleven graves in the cemetery. 

She was a member of a church that puts no 
emphasis upon experimental religion. Neverthe- 
less this honest soul had persevered in her pray- 
ing until she knew that her sins were forgiven. 

Heartbroken, she had one day gone to her 
place of secret prayer, asking God if she should 
ever see her children in heaven. Led by the 
prayer inspiring Spirit, she had yielded herself 
in a complete consecration to God, although she 
did not understand the terms that define that 
experience. The result was that she received the 
Baptism with The Holy Spirit. 

She had gone into the place of secret prayer in 
sorrow. She came out with holy laughter. 

The hired man supposing she had become in- 
sane was so frightened that he ran a mile in 
stocking feet to get her husband home, telling 
him "Your wife has become crazy." 

When they arrived at the house she was still 



28 THE PROMISED GIFT 

laughing. They did not know what to think 
of it. 

On Sunday the preacher discoursed on the 
woman at the well of Samaria and the w T ell of 
living waters that Jesus said he would put in 
believers. He had much to say about the joy 
of salvation — the happiness that true religion 
will afford. There are many preachers who tell 
of the wonderful peace and joy of religion. They 
are obliged to give it a good recommendation or 
they would lose their job, for they seem to 
have taken up preaching as a job. But there is a 
hungry, disappointed church all around, who 
have not proved it to be true, for very few seem 
to preach it as if they expected the people to 
have the joy of salvation or had it themselves. 
They do not tell them of The Indwelling Com- 
forter, the joy producer. 

When he had finished his discourse, our good 
sister walked up to the front of the church and 
said to him, "Brother, I have got it." 

"Got what?" 

"The living waters which you preached about," 
was the reply. 

"The living waters !" was the astonished re- 
joinder, 



THE PROMISED GIFT 29 

"Yes." 

The preacher was astonished, abashed and 
dumbfounded, to find that the good woman had 
obtained what he had preached about. 

How much sermonizing there is at which the 
preachers would be astonished if it became ex- 
perimental. 

The preacher recovered a little from his aston- 
ishment and embarrassment, and said to his wife, 
"Let us take her to the parsonage." 

So they each took her by the hand and led her 
to their home. When they got there, to add to 
their astonishment the Lord blessed her again. 
This was too much for them and they said, "Well, 
you have something that we have not." 

As the woman day after day insisted that she 
was still possessed of the "Living Waters" ec- 
clesiasticism became much disturbed for some 
reason. The carnal mind is enmity against God, 
says the apostle. And we suppose for the same 
reason it is enmity against everything that God 
does. The result was that the preacher sent to 
another part of the State for some of the lead- 
ing preachers to reason with the sister and con- 
vince her that she had no experience and that all 
that she had experienced was a delusion. 



30 THE PROMISED GIFT 

Not being able to convince her they expelled 
her from the church. Expelled her for obtaining 
what the minister had preached about ! Like the 
man cured of blindness she knew what she had. 
When a truth is once clearly seen we can never 
unsee it. 

A few months afterwards God sent an evange- 
list with a tabernacle to this town. The good 
sister went to hear him and one day when he 
preached on the subject of holiness as she sat 
and drank in the word, she saw that holiness was ' 
the very experience that she had received and 
had always called it the "Living Waters." When 
she heard the name she appreciated it all the 
more. 

Now it would be absurd to say that this sister 
had been persuaded to seek this experience by 
"Some of these fanatics" (as some people call 
them) who preach holiness. She obtained it by 
going to God with her heart need. If any one 
was to be blamed it was not the woman. Will 
any one undertake to say that the Lord is to be 
held responsible or criticised for it ?* 

Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do hunger 



*The writer can bring many witnesses to vouch for the 
truth of this incident. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 3 1 

and thirst after righteousness for they shall be 
filled." A genuinely regenerate soul has im- 
planted in his nature a hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, such as a man without spiritual 
life never has. This is a mark of the new birth 
— a desire for holiness. Let no one suppose him- 
self a child of God who is without it. 

And such a soul will be filled. This is the 
promise of Jesus. "Every man that hath this 
hope in Him purifieth himself." He either has 
a pure heart or is seeking it. 



32 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER III. 

FOR THE CHILDREN OF GOD ONLY. 

It is affirmed by a certain class of religionists 
that the gift of The Holy Ghost is the same as 
the experience of regeneration and that the dis- 
ciples at Pentecost were just converted. 

We object to this objection, as simply made 
to dodge the necessity of receiving the gift as a 
second work of grace. We believe we can sus- 
tain our objection by the plain word of God. If 
we cannot, we desire that what we say will be 
corrected by some Bible student, and we sin- 
cerely affirm that we are open to conviction on 
this most important subject. 

These men had been regenerated by the preach- 
ing of John the Baptist, as the human instru- 
ment. They had been baptized by John without 
doubt, for they were the disciples of John when 
Jesus called them. Their baptism meant that 
they had experienced what their master, John, 
had been preaching. Certainly Jesus would not 



THE PROMISED GIFT $$ 

have called them, if they had merely pretended 
to have experienced what John preached. He 
would not have called hypocrites to be his dis- 
ciples. 

It remains then for us to discover what doc- 
trines and experience were preached by John in 
his six months' ministry. 

( i ) John preached repentance. St. Mark says, 
"John did baptize in the wilderness and preach 
the baptism of repentance" (Mark 1:4). We 
know this was evangelical repentance, for 
Matthew tells us that it meant abandonment of 
sin, in these words : "Bring forth therefore fruits 
meet for repentance" (Matt. 3 :8). This preacher 
of righteousness required a life of righteousness. 
Do gospel preachers of to-day make any greater 
requirements? Do they preach a more stalwart 
repentance ? No. 

(2) John preached that sin must be confessed. 
"Then went out to him all Jerusalem and all 
Judea and all the region round about Jordan and 
were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their 
sins" (Matt. 3:5-6). Confession of sins was 
then and is now a condition of acceptance with 
God. "He that covereth his sins shall not pros- 



34 THE PROMISED GIFT 

per. But he that confesseth and forsaketh shall 
find mercy" (Prov. 28:13). 

(3) John preached faith in Jesus as necessary 
to salvation. In the third chapter of the Gos- 
pel of St. John, verse 36, we shall see by care- 
ful study that John the Baptist and not John the 
Evangelist is speaking. This may be seen by 
referring to verses 23-2J. He says in verse 36, 
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
life." That is, John was preaching that every 
one who believed on Jesus had everlasting life. 

A quarter of a century later we find St. Paul 
on one of his preaching tours at Ephesus com- 
menting on the preaching of John, asking twelve 
men whom he found there this question: "Have 
ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" 
They replied a good deal as many might reply 
in Christian churches to-day, "We have not so 
much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.*' 
And when he asked them unto what they had 
been baptized and they had replied "Unto John's 
baptism," Paul began to show them what John 
preached in these words, "John verily baptized 
with the baptism of repentance, saying that they 
should believe on him that should come after 
him, that is, on Christ Jesus." Here we see that 



THE PROMISED GIFT 35 

John was preaching that we must believe on Jesus 
in order to be saved. Do Gospel preachers preach 
anything else as a condition of salvation to-day? 
Nay, verily. 

(4) John preached the remission (or forgive- 
ness) of sins. "John did baptize in the wilder- 
ness, and preach the baptism of repentance for 
the remission of sins" (Mark 1:4). This is the 
very same experience that Peter preached to sin- 
ners, when three thousand were converted. 

(5) John preached regeneration. This is a 
theological term and is used to denote the ex- 
perience of the new birth. It is the same require- 
ment which Jesus made of Nicodemus, when he 
said, "Ye must be born again." It means the 
new, eternal life coming into the dead soul, where- 
by a man becomes a new creature. We read in 
John 3 136, a passage already alluded to, which 
is the language of John the Baptist and not John 
the writer, "He that believeth on the Son hath 
everlasting life" — not, he will have it at some 
future day, but he has it now. It is a present 
experience. Gospel preachers offer nothing 
grander to penitent sinners to-day. 

(6) John preached that we may know we are 
saved now and do not have to wait until we 



36 THE PROMISED GIFT 

die, to know it. There are many preachers under 
this dispensation who do not preach that we may 
know this. There are many professed Christians 
who only indulge a hope of salvation. 

But John came to tell men they could have 
a salvation of which they could have a conscious- 
ness. Zacharias, the father of John, when filled 
with the Holy Ghost (and hence uttered the 
truth) said of John's mission that he had come 
to "Give the KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION 
to his people by the remission of their sins" (Luke 
1:77). Thus we see that John preached re- 
pentance, confession of sin, faith, pardon, regen- 
eration and assurance — the same doctrines that 
we preach to sinners to-day. Will any candid 
man say that these men who left John to fol- 
low Jesus were unsaved, unregenerate men? Had 
not John been getting them ready to be the dis- 
ciples of Jesus ? And did not Jesus declare later 
that they belonged to God at the time they were 
given to Him — not by John, but by The Father ? 
Jesus realized that the Father had been prepar- 
ing them for Him, simply using John as the in- 
strument. In the seventeenth chapter of John, 
verse nine, he says of their transference to him- 
self from John, "Them which thou hast given 



THE PROMISED GIFT $] 

me ; for they are thine." A few verses later he 
says, "They are not of the world even as I am 
not of the world." They were as separate and 
distinct from the world as he was. What more 
could they have, or must they have or become, 
to be all that the Bible requires to be a child of 
God ? Nothing. 



38 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER IV. 
for the children of god only. — (Continued.) 

Having shown from the word of God with 
sufficient proofs to convince any candid man that 
these men were regenerate at this time, we now 
take up the illustration of Jesus. Either they 
were regenerate or the illustration of Jesus is 
without point or adaptation. Where can an in- 
stance be found where his illustrations w r ere not 
as clear as the noon day ? 

He is here showing the delight of a parent in 
feeding a hungry child. This appeals to the finest 
and tenderest feelings of a parent. "If ye being 
evil know how to give good gifts unto your chil- 
dren, how much more shall your Heavenly Father 
give The Holy Spirit to them that ask him." 
The point of the illustration is, You are God's 
children and if you are delighted in giving food 
to your children, how much more delighted is 
The Father to give The Holy Spirit to his chil- 
dren, which ye are. To understand that these 



THE PROMISED GIFT 39 

men were unsaved men at this time, would spoil 
the illustration of Jesus and make it meaning- 
less. He says, "Your Heavenly Father." He 
recognizes the fact that they are of the family 
of God — His children. 

We know that right here the Universalist says 
that we are all by nature the children of God, 
because He created us. But this is not true. To 
be sure God created us. He also created the 
brutes about us. But if that is the only claim 
we have to sonship, it is a very weak one. But 
St. John says we are "Born not of blood nor of 
the will of the flesh or the will of man," but by 
receiving Jesus. Paul says we are "By nature 
the children of wrath." Without the new birth 
we can never call God, father, except on the level 
of brutes whom God has never recognized as his 
children, for they have not His nature. How 
beautiful and appropriate and encouraging then, 
this illustration of Jesus becomes when we under- 
stand Him as talking to the children of God. 
How meaningless it would have been to them if 
they had been still the children of the wicked 
one! God will give The Spirit to His children 
with as much delight as you feed your children. 

It w r as the disciples and not the unsaved world 



40 THE PROMISED GIFT 

about them to whom Jesus taught the prayer, 
"Our Father which art in heaven." He told the 
disciples to call God their Father. This was an 
unheard of thing*. No one had ever thought of 
calling him Father before this. Now He an- 
nounces the fact that these men might call him 
Father. But this announcement never was made 
to an unsaved man. 

Dr. A. J. Gordon in his great work entitled 
The Ministry of The Spirit, notes the fact that 
there is the same error touching* the ministry of 
The Spirit that Universalists have fallen into 
as regards the ministry of Jesus. Universalism 
affirms that men may become sons of God uncon- 
sciously when they assert that all men are sons 
of God by natural birth. Modern Zinzendorfian- 
ism asserts that the gift of The Holy Spirit is the 
same as regeneration which is nothing more than 
the old error of Universalism applied to the min- 
istry of The Spirit, asserting that we obtain the 
gift of the Spirit unconsciously; that we are en- 
tirely sanctified at that time when we are not 
seeking it and do not realize it. 

The objection is sometimes raised that in 
teaching that the disciples were regenerated by 



THE PROMISED GIFT 41 

The Holy Spirit, we are teaching that they were 
without The Spirit until the day of Pentecost. 

This is not true. They were regenerate before 
Pentecost. No man can be regenerate without 
having The Spirit in a measure, but not as "The 
gift," as Paul calls it, "The Fullness of The 
Blessing." 

Jesus clearly shows this to the disciples before 
Pentecost thus, "Even The Spirit of truth whom 
the world cannot receive because is seeth Him not, 
neither knoweth Him ; but ye know Him, for He 
dwelleth with you and shall be in you" (John 14: 
17). Here it will be noticed that The Spirit was 
dwelling, "With them," and they knew Him, 
while the unsaved world knew Him not. Quite a 
difference between them and the world about 
them ! But the time was coming when He should 
be "In them." Comment on this verse seems 
unnecessary. 



42 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SPECIAL WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 

The offices of The Spirit are many. He is 
carrying* on the work of redemption in this world. 
Therefore He has been well styled "The Execu- 
tive of The Godhead. " Among- His offices are 
the works of enlightening, convicting, regenerat- 
ing, witnessing, sanctifying, indwelling, striving 
and comforting. 

But He has one work greater than all others 
and to which all others are either subsidiary or 
the result, and that is to purify the heart from 
all sin. There is a disposition in some quarters 
to magnify the results of His special work in 
cleansing to the belittling or ignoring of that 
special work of cleansing. Empowering is the 
result of His cleansing and filling and many peo- 
ple magnify it above cleansing. 

The next great work that He accomplishes in 
the heart of the believer to whom He has wit- 
nessed to His sonship, is to convict of indwell- 



THE PROMISED GIFT 43 

ing sin in order to induce him to seek cleansing 
from it. 

The battle ground to-day is not as to a second 
work of grace. That has been clearly proved and 
conceded. The question now is, as to the nature 
of that work. The storm center is over the sin 
question. 

Quite a company of people are declaring that 
the only thing accomplished in him who receives 
the gift of The Spirit is empowering for service. 
But that the carnal nature must rerpain in us 
until death, although it may be kept in subjection 
by a good degree of watchfulness. This is a 
denial of the special work of holiness and a mag- 
nifying of one of its results. This is the essence 
of Keswickism. Dr. Daniel Steele has pointed 
out very clearly that the very name of The Holy 
Spirit indicates His special work. 

He is The Holy Spirit while that term holy 
is not given to the other persons of the Trinity 
when we speak of them — not because they are 
not holy, but He is called The Holy Spirit be- 
cause it is His special office to make us holy. 
This is the great point towards which all the 
dispensations trend and He is on earth for that 
special purpose. We are "elect of God through 



44 THE PROMISED GIFT 

sanctification of The Spirit/' says Peter (Ch. 

1:2). 

That the cleansing of the heart from all the 
corruption and derangement which it has in- 
herited from the fall of man is the special work 
of The Spirit when He is received as The Gift, 
is seen in the terms used to denote this experi- 
ence. 

This "second work" is called "The Baptism 
with The Holy Spirit/' The word baptism means 
cleansing. Consultation of any standard dic- 
tionary will show this. How astonishing then 
that intelligent men will persist in teaching that 
the Baptism with The Spirit means only em- 
powering. 

Empowering is the result that always follows 
to a greater or less degree when the soul is bap- 
tized. But it is the result and not the experi- 
ence itself. 

Brother Moody received the baptism under the 
exhortation of two godly women who taught, 
professed and lived the blessing of a clean heart. 
It gave him great empowering. He himself taught 
that Christians should obtain it as empowering 
for service. We have yet to hear of any person 
who ever obtained it under his preaching or 



THE PROMISED GIFT 45 

teaching-. As far as we have had any experience 
or observation, no one was ever known to receive 
this as power for service, seeking it as such. But 
thousands have received power for service by 
seeking and obtaining the blessing of entire sanc- 
tification. 

We doubt if there is a case on record of any 
one ever receiving the baptism who sought it 
as a means of obt .ining power. There is too 
much of selfishness and self-importance wrapped 
up in the idea of most persons, who thus seek. This 
baptism will kill that thing out of the heart, and 
The Spirit will not cater to the self life that seeks 
power rather than purity. 

Another term much used by the people who 
talk thus is "the fullness. " Their teaching is 
that we may obtain the fullness when we are 
baptized with The Spirit, which is true. But it 
cannot be true that we obtain the "Fullness" 
with the old nature still remaining. This is a 
contradiction of terms. It is impossible to be 
filled with The Holy Spirit and have any other 
spirit in us at the same time. How absurd to 
thus use terms. Is a bottle full of water if there 
is something else there at the same time? Is a 
heart filled with The Spirit if there be any of 



46 THE PROMISED GIFT 

the old carnal nature, which "Is enmity with 
God," at the same time ? Can The Holy Spirit fill 
a heart and have anything contrary to Himself 
there at the same time? Such statements are 
self-contradictory. 

We must conclude therefore that while there 
are other offices of The Spirit in the tutelage 
which He assumes over the soul, yet the great 
work, which He performs in The Baptism, from 
the very definition of the word is entire sanctifi- 
cation or the cleansing of the heart from "The 
Carnal Mind," or in other words, the defilement 
and trend towards evil which we all have in- 
herited. If words teach or have any meaning, 
this is what they mean when we tise these terms. 

We might point out here that to teach the 
indwelling of The Spirit in a sinful heart, with 
sin suppressed is a wrong state of things. It is 
an impure condition, even if sin be hidden or 
suppressed. We cannot believe that The Spirit, 
the source of all purity, can consent to dwell in 
any such temple. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 47 



CHAPTER VI. 



NOT A GRADUAL PROCESS. 



1'h ere are some people who believe that the 
heart is cleansed from its native depravity by a 
gradual process, called "Growth In Grace. " It 
is expressed by some in the phrase "Dying more 
and more daily to sin." 

This is a very delusive theory, as it entirely 
mistakes the nature and object of growth, which 
is not to destroy but to add to that which already 
exists. Growth adds quantity but never quality. 
A piece of cloth may be in need of washing and 
if we add more cloth there will be no less dirt 
in' the fabric. What we need is subtraction of the 
dirt. Nothing in either nature or grace ever 
becomes clean by growth. 

THERE ARE NO WITNESSES TO THIS 
DECEPTIVE THEORY. Many people say they 
believe we become clean in heart by growth, but 
no one as yet has testified in any age of the 



48 THE PROMISED GIFT 

church that he has arrived at the state of entire 
sanctification by growth in grace. 

As we saw in the last chapter that the special 
work of The Spirit is to entirely sanctify the 
soul, therefore this work must be done in the 
soul according to the way The Spirit works. 
For He is the only Sanctiiier. If the gift of The 
Spirit is gradual then we are sanctified grad- 
ually. But if the gift of The Spirit is an in- 
stantaneous work then the entire sanctification of 
the heart is not a gradual work. It only remains 
for us to see whether the reception of this gift 
is a growth or an instantaneous impartation. 

This illustration of Jesus about the parent giv- 
ing food to the hungry child settles this question, 
for Jesus meant something always by His illus- 
trations. This false notion would make the il- 
lustration of Jesus meaningless. 

He does not say, What man is there among 
you, if his son ask bread will he say, "My dear 
son, you must grow into it or grow bigger before 
you can have it." 

A good earthly parent gives the food to his 
child WHEN THAT CHILD ASKS ARIGHT 
— not at some future time. Thus Jesus teaches 
us that God wants to give us the soul satisfying 



THE PROMISED GIFT 49 

gift when we need it — not at some other time. 
Ke will not put off those that really hunger and 
thirst. He will fill them. He will not tantalize 
them 2nd put them off and thus tease them. No ; 
He loves us more than we love our children. And 
the desire for the fullness of salvation was not 
put in our hearts to tease or worry us. What a 
picture some people have in their minds of the 
great and good God ! He is not cruel, but He 
gives at once to those who yield completely to 
him. We assert that entire sanctification is not 
a gradual gift for two reasons. 

i. It is to be asked for. Where are we told 
that it is to be grown into? "To them that ask 
Him/' says Jesus. A child will not ask very 
earnestly for a gift that he is to receive only after 
a process of years. Nor will a Christian plead 
very importunately for that which he expects 
gradually. It is contrary to the laws of the hu- 
man mind. And he who bids us ask, is the 
Creator of the human mind and heart. Will a 
man be very importunate in prayer for some- 
thing which he believes is already gradually tak- 
ing place within him ! To show the absurdity 
of this idea, it is only necessary to state it. If 
there ever was any one in Scriptural history or 



50 THE PROMISED GIFT 

since who strove mightily, and wrestled with 
great faith for a gradual blessing and finally 
triumphed, we have never heard of such a case. 
If children cry importunately for bread to the 
parent without any expectation of getting it at 
present, we have never heard of such children. 

2. To grow into a gift is an absurdity for it 
is a contradiction of terms. Who ever heard of 
a person growing into a gift! A gift is some- 
thing to be received and not grown into. Did 
you grow into your Christmas present or did you 
receive it ? It seems almost trivial to thus write, 
but it shows the weakness of this popular error. 

All salvation is obtained by faith, not attained 
by growth. Notice the distinction between the 
words, obtain and attain. We obtain by faith. We 
attain by seeking to work out, stretch up to, etc. 
Faith is the hand that reaches out and takes the 
gift at once. When Peter declared that t:»eir 
hearts were "purified by faith at Pentecost" (Acts 
15:9), he forever settled this question. Peter 
was there when the work of Pentecost took 
place and we prefer this statement of one who 
had it to ten thousand who have not received 
it, no matter what their theory may be? 



THE PROMISED GIFT 5 1 



CHAPTER VII. 



POWER FOR SERVICE. 



We have already alluded to this subject in a 
previous chapter. We want to say here what 
we could not say exactly at that place. 

"Power for service'' is a very popular expres- 
sion. It is exceedingly taking. It is the shib- 
boleth of a certain school of teachers. They 
make this the chief work of The Spirit, whereas 
the Scripture does not^ Jesus made it in His 
teaching the result of the sanctifying baptism. 
Pie said, "Ye shall receive power after that the 
Ploly Ghost is come upon you/' The Revised 
Version translates it "When the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you." This empowering is not The 
Ploly Spirit himself nor the special work of The 
Spirit : it is rather the result of The Spirit com- 
ing into the heart and destroying that great 
hindrance to power — the carnal mind and in- 
dwelling the believer and working out through 
all his being. 



52 THE PROMISED GIFT 

There is no gift of power independent of and 
separate from His own presence in the heart. 
And He manifests His fullness only in holy lives 
and living. Hence the greatest power in 
the world is the power of a holy life. 
How many people are caught and bewitched with 
the idea of a mysterious enduement that will 
throw a spell over the utterances of the tongue 
and sway the multitude without any reference 
to the character of the person speaking. Hence 
many have sought for the gift of power to speak 
and electrify and move without regard to holy liv- 
ing. Many want to be Simpsons or Spurgeons, or 
great soul savers who do not want a holy heart. 
Paul says, "Though I speak with the tongues of 
men and angels and have not love I am become 
as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. " 

A holy life has more power than all the oratory 
of this world. A holy man, back of a sermon or 
testimony has more real power than all the ora- 
tors and eloquence of the world. This is the 
power God wants us to have. This is the real 
power. This is within the reach of all. It is 
better then to seek that which we can have, than 
eloquence of tongue which God grants to but 
few. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 53 

We have never yet heard of any one who 
obtained the gift of power independent of the 
entire sanctification of the heart. We have never 
heard of any one, who ignored holiness and 
sought the baptism of power, who received either. 
This half truth has switched many off the track 
— seeking a mysterious power instead of seek- 
ing a holy life, the greatest power on earth to 
move men. 

Nice words, oratorical periods, and human elo- 
quence never yet saved men. A holy heart on the 
other hand transforms small talents into electric 
conductors of Holy Ghost power. He wants 
the glass of the globes clear and then He will 
come in and shine out. But how few care to 
have the glass cleaned. They want the shining 
through uncleanness 

It is possible, therefore, to get whole congre- 
gations to the altar seeking power, who would 
not come at all for a clean heart, by which the 
old self life, that great hindrance to power, is 
removed. 

It pv.ffs up the pride to think of becoming of 
so much consequence to the work of God that all 
men will see and admire our great doings. Much 



54 THE PROMISED GIFT 

of the cry for power is the selfish desire of the 
unsanctified heart. 

Some one says that many seek The Holy Spirit, 
for what they can get out of Him and not for 
His own sake or for the sake of being right, a 
good deal like a man marries his housekeeper, 
not for love, but because it is cheaper than to 
pay her wages. 

When we become all that God wants us to 
be, He will give us all the power He wants us 
to have. And He says emphatically in His word 
that He wants us to be holy. We turn now to this 
wonderful illustration of Jesus. 

When the child is hungry, if the parent gives 
it food, it becomes stronger to do the bidding 
of the parent. But the child never comes to the 
parent for food that it may be stronger to do 
errands for the parent. 

We never hear a child say, "Father, give me 
bread or an egg or a fish that I may be stronger 
to run errands for you." No. It asks for the 
food to supply the hunger of its nature, and the 
food, however, makes it stronger. And a child 
of God really regenerate as we have shown, 
never comes to God saying, "I want The Holy 
Spirit that I may do better work for Thee." But 



THE PROMISED GIFT 55 

a really renegerate man comes that the deep 
longings of his nature, to be pure, to be like his 
Father, which are implanted in the soul by The 
Holy Spirit, may be satisfied by that Sp'rit. When 
that .sinful temper has been purified and the carnal 
mind cast out, then that child of God Is stronger 
and is qualified to do his Father's bidding. Iloli- 
ress is the desire of the soul of a really converted 
man, before all desire for power. And when 
he has that, he has power. When we get the 
fever all out of the blood and the ever upspring- 
ing well of living waters in the soul, then u Rivers 
of water" flow out if the holy life just as Jesus 
said should be the case (See John 7:38). Get 
the gift and there will be no trouble with the 
result — power. 



56 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER VIII. 



A DEFINITE EXPERIENCE. 



The gift of The Holy Spirit is a definite ex- 
perience received by a definite act of faith, as 
truly as is the experience of conversion. It pro- 
duces a crisis in the experience of the individual 
who receives it. 

As we have before remarked it is not attained 
by a process requiring a protracted time, but is 
obtained by simple faith. 

There is a great deal of indefiniteness in the 
prayers and longings to which we hear people 
give expression. 

There is a great deal of mere sentiment about 
"A deeper work of grace," "Getting nearer to 
God," being "More faithful," "Seeking a deeper 
work of grace," etc. 

These are neither Scriptural expressions nor 
Scriptural experiences. If we carefully study 
the Word we shall find that those who prayed 
and received spiritual experiences made definite 



THE PROMISED GIFT 57 

requests. They aimed at something definite in 
their prayers. 

The Publican did not pray to be better, but 
he prayed for God to have mercy and forgive 
him. That man went down to his house with a 
definite experience. He was JUSTIFIED. His 
sins were all forgiven. David did not pray for 
more religion or to be made better. He prayed 
for a clean heart. The disciples in the upper 
room tarried and prayed for ten days — not for 
power, or a deeper work of grace, but for "THE 
promise of the Father. " This was a definite 
prayer and it received a definite, answer. So 
definite was it that when it was received, Peter 
used the definite pronoun to describe it, saying, 
"THIS is THAT which was spoken by the 
prophet Joel." It was something definite. If 
it had been more religion, how would they have 
known how much more it was or how could they 
tell any one else how much it was? Faith has 
to have something definite to lay hold upon. It 
is very difficult, it seems to us, to exercise faith 
for more religion unless we have some idea of 
how much more we want. 

When we hear people pray for more religion 
we wonder what kind they have now. If they 



58 THE PROMISED GIFT 

have a false religion or a mean religion the more 
they have of it the worse off they will be. Some- 
times it would be a curse to have any more of 
the kind they now have on hand. And if 
they now have the right kind of religion it may 
mean so little an increase as to amount to noth- 
ing. 

Some say they want "A deeper work of grace." 
This, too, is too indefinite to mean much of any- 
thing. They may have it deeper, but not as 
deep as they ought to go. We may want to be 
better and yet not want to be as good as we 
ought to be. 

The comparative degree is a very indefinite de- 
gree. But the superlative degree means some- 
thing. When the soul says I want to be at my 
best for God and want the best thing He has for 
me — that means something. But how few want 
to be completely swallowed up* in the will of 
God. They want to make a few mental reser- 
vations. 

They want to be better if it is not going to cost 
too much. They want more religion if there is to 
be no cross bearing with it. But if they must 
let Benjamin go down to Egypt or yield up their 
Isaac to be sacrificed, then they do not want to 



THE PROMISED GIFT 59 

go into it as deep as that. They are willing to 
have more religion of their kind if they are not 
required to smash their idols. They are willing 
to have a deeper work of grace if it does not go 
so deep as to kill the "Old Man." 

They are willing to get more religion if they 
can get it cheap. 

We may get nearer to God and not get as 
near as we ought. Multitudes are singing, 
"Nearer my God to Thee," who mean nothing 
but a pretty sentiment that makes them feel good 
for the two minutes that they are singing. That 
hymn, "Nearer my God to Thee," is very popu- 
lar with a lot of worldly Christians who have 
religion as a kind of life preserver to be used 
only in time of emergency and not for every 
day. It is one of the marks of the emasculated 
standards of the day that this hymn that was 
written by a Unitarian and has not a word of 
Je^us Christ or the atonement or salvation in 
it should have been allowed in the Hymnals of 
the "Orthodox Churches" and become popular 
with masses of professed Christians. 

We may have something better than approxi- 
mating towards God. Jesus said, "If any man 
love me, he will keep my words and my Father 



60 THE PROMISED GIFT 

will love him and we will come unto him and 
make our abode with him" (John 14:23). 

To have the Father and Son dwell in us is 
better than getting nearer to God. 

Again we hear people say, "I want to be more 
faithful." To be more faithful implies that we 
have not been faithful — -that we have been un- 
faithful. 

In contrast to these human modifications of 
duty, notice how uncompromising and definite 
the commands of God are; such as -"Be ye holy," 
"Be ye therefore perfect," "Covet earnestly the 
Best gifts." 

A speaker at a college commencement said to 
the students, "Do not read good books. 
Do not read better books. Read only 
the best books." He meant that life 
was too short to fritter away on merely good 
books. There is time for only the best. In like 
manner we would say, Life is too short merely 
to be good or better when we may be holy and 
at our best for God. 

The illustration of Jesus comes in again, to help 
us in our thinking at this point. Notice the 
definiteness of the asking. "If a son ask bread" 
or "A fish," or "An egg. Jf If he asks bread he 



THE PROMISED GIFT 6l 

will get that definite thing that he asks for. So 
likewise if he ask an egg or a fish. He will ob- 
tain not something else, but that which he asks, 
is the teaching of Jesus. In other words, if we 
ask for The GIFT of The Spirit, God will not 
give us more religion or a deeper work of Grace, 
but the Gift of The Holy Ghost. 

Then when we have received this definite bless- 
ing by definitely asking we are not to call it "A 
Great Blessing" or "More Religion," but call h 
just what we asked for. How many have received 
this blessing and then have hid ,their light under 
the bushel of indefinite testimony and as the 
result the light has become dimmed or has gone 
out. 

If you have asked for bread and have been 
blessed, call it bread now that you have it. 



62 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER IX. 



NOT FOR SALE. 



The very term, The Gift of The Holy Spirit, 
ought to be sufficient to teach every one that it 
cannot be bought. Yet multitudes are trying to 
buy it. 

"How much more shall your Heavenly Father 
give The Holy Spirit to them that ask him,'' 
said Jesus. He is to be asked for — not hired or 
bought. 

There are people who start back in horror at 
the story of Simon Magus, who offered Peter 
money for the power to impart The Holy Spirit 
to others at the revival in Samaria. They think, 
how mercenary Simon was to offer money for 
such a purpose ! There are some who seem to 
think that money is the key that will open every 
closed door and obtain for its possessor every 
treasure. Hence it has come to be a fact that 
they expect to purchase their way into heaven. 

There are many different ways whereby men 



THE PROMISED GIFT 63 

seek to obtain salvation by offering a price for 
it. 

Some attempt to buy The Holy Spirit by their 
good works, their faithfulness, consecration, pen- 
ance, mortification of the body, etc. Any way 
that men expect to obtain this blessing except as 
a gift is an attempt to buy it. 

This is God's highest gift to His children. He 
will give it freely to those v/ho ask Him, but He 
will sell it to no one. The parent feeds the child 
and takes care of it, not because the child earns 
its board, but because it is his child. The parent 
gives to the child because of its needs. Our Heav- 
enly Father gives this gift because we are His chil- 
dren and because it is the greatest need of the 
children. Peter said to the council, "And we 
are His witnesses of these things ; and so also 
is The Holy Ghost, whom Cod hath given to 
them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32). 

God never sells His best to any one. 

There are things too sacred to buy or sell. 
We are willing to give them to our best friends, 
but we would sell them to no one. 

The faithful love of the mother is cheerfully 
given to her household. What drudgery she 
cheerfully takes up every day ! What weariness 



64 THE PROMISED GIFT 

and sleeplessness she gladly endures ! What self- 
denial she practices for those she loves. Would 
she go out to sell all that for a stranger ? Would 
money buy it ? By no means. Money cannot buy 
love. It would be an insult to attempt to buy it. 
True love is above and beyond all price. Money 
cannot, with all its power, reach up to the best 
things. 

Our Heavenly Father is independent. We have 
nothing to give Him that He needs. He is not 
in business for gain. The sooner some people 
act in harmony with this principle the sooner they 
will begin to advance in divine things. 

For there is a class of people who think they 
are buying the sanctification of their hearts by 
offering their consecration as the price. They 
think that entire consecration will bring entire 
sanctification. But this is not true. They begin 
to feel as if they had put the Lord under obliga- 
tion in entirely consecrating themselves to Him. 
It is true that entire consecration is putting our- 
selves on believing ground for this blessing, but 
being on believing ground and believing are no 
more the same than being on farming ground 
is farming. This is the reason many are mysti- 
fied. They say, "My consecration is complete. I 



THE PROMISED GIFT 65 

do not know of anything more that I can do. 
But I do not receive the blessing." Of course 
not. They have not thrown away their unbelief 
and taken the gift by simple faith. But they are 
arrogating to themselves a good deal of merit, 
as much as to say, "I have paid a big price and 
have merited the blessing. The Lord owes it to 
me.'' 

Think of the disciples to whom Jesus was to 
give the kingdom of heaven and who had left two 
or three boats and a few nets and a business in 
a small lake, boasting of their great consecra- 
tion ! 

Reader, if you owned the whole world and 
gave it all up to God the Gift of The Holy Ghost 
would be worth more than the whole world even 
if it had been made of solid gold. Quit putting 
so high an estimate on your doings and the few 
straws that you have given to God. If you want 
the gift you must take it as a GIFT. 



66 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER X. 



IT IS NOT DANGEROUS. 



Paul speaking to the Corinthians of remaining 
a while at Ephesus before he came to see them 
says, "For a great door and effectual is opened 
unto me, and there are many adversaries" (I. 
Cor. 16:9). This is true of every great, open 
door, whether of duty or privilege. About every 
open dcor there are many adversaries, who will 
do all they can to shut the door or keep us from 
entering. 

Where was ever a good work going on, that 
there were not adversaries? Have not all good 
men, who have been engaged in any great work, 
been called to endure the fiercest opposition? 
Where was there ever a man who sought, to save 
his soul that was not opposed and hindered by 
adversaries, sometimes of his own household? 
John Bunyan represents his Pilgrim as opposed 
by those of his own household who thought him 
mad when he sought to escape from the city of 



THE PROMISED GIFT 6j 

destruction. Over the door to this greatest and 
richest gift that God has to bestow, adversaries 
have sought to frighten away the hungry children 
of God by writing "Dangerous doctrine," "Fan- 
aticism," "Absurdity," "Lunacy." But, thank 
God, some people have been through the door 
and found that these warnings are themselves 
absurd. 

It was so in the days of Caleb and Joshua. The 
ten spies reported to the people that it was dan- 
gerous to go over into Canaan, because there 
were the giants of the land and the walled cities. 
But Caleb and Joshua had seen the land and 
had their eyes on the almighty power of their 
God. 

Some people really think that if they receive 
this gift they will be taken right home to heaven 
and they do not seem to want to go. We have 
heard people say, "If I should become holy I 
would be too good for this world and would go 
right up to heaven." It seems they are afraid 
of going to heaven. 

The world has always misunderstood its best 
people and considered them out of their mind. 
The devil likes to have it understood that this 
is a fatal gift and that if one receives it his use- 



68 THE PROMISED GIFT 

fulness is impaired and the church and world 
will have no further need or use for him. 

So Joseph was called a dreamer; Elijah a 
troubler in Israel; Jeremiah a pessimist; Jesus 
and Paul were considered beside themselves. 

At Pentecost they said the recipients of this 
grace were intoxicated. In the middle ages they 
called them "Mystics." John the Baptist, who 
was full of The Holy Ghost, so that even the 
wicked King Herod knew him to be a holy man, 
was said to be possessed of the devil. When 
Jesus came they said the same thing of Him. He 
was "Holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from 
sinners," and yet when He was arrested they 
came out against Him with swords and staves, 
as if He were dangerous. 

As long as Satan can get men to misunder- 
stand the nature of this, their highest privilege, he 
is satisfied. Men are being frightened away 
from the doctrine and experience of holiness by 
the terms, "Sinless perfection" and the misrepre- 
sentation, "They say they cannot sin," until it is 
supposed that a man has an unsound mind to 
profess to have received this best gift that God 
has for His children. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 69 

But it is not dangerous to be good. God will 
give us nothing that will harm us. 

Hear what Jesus says on this point in this 
marvelous illustration. He evidently foresaw 
how the carnal mind would act. "If a son ask 
bread of any of you that is a father, will he 
give him a stone?" Would you give your chil- 
dren anything that would hurt them? If you 
would not give your children anything to hurt 
them would God treat His children worse than 
you treat your children? Would a kind father 
give a child a stone when he asked for bread? 
Would he give him a serpent when he asked for 
a fish? Would he .give him a scorpion when he 
asked for an egg ? How absurd ! And yet many 
are accusing God of these very dangerous things. 

What shall we say of a preacher who had taken 
his ordination vows affirming that he expected 
at some time to receive this gift and that he was 
"Groaning after it," and yet refuse to seek it lest 
he become a fanatic. Was it not really a sus- 
picion that his Heavenly Father was cruel or 
unwise ? 

So-called children of God fearing to ask for 
His greatest gift lest they be injured by it ! Fear- 



yO THE PROMISED GIFT 

ing their reputation will suffer; that they may 
be ostracised or their minds impaired. 

No! No! A thousand times, no! This gift is 
not a stone without nourishment. It is the nutri- 
ment that every true Christian hungers for. It 
is not a stone — hard, unpalatable and indigestible. 
It is not a serpent to poison us with his venom. 
It is not a scorpion to sting us to death. Shame 
on those who thus insult The Holy Spirit ! Such 
misrepresentation is satanic. 

This is the best thing that a loving Father 
can give His hungry children, not only nourish- 
ing but cleansing, illuminating, comforting and 
invigorating. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 7 1 



CHAPTER XL 



THE BLESSER HIMSELF. 



The gifts bestowed by The Spirit are spoken 
of by the Apostle in Hebrews (2:4). But these 
are not the same as The Gift of The Spirit Him- 
self. 

There are thousands who profess to be Chris- 
tians and refer to The Holy Spirit as "It." 

The ignorance displayed by the converts men- 
tioned in Acts 19th chapter is still displayed by 
thousands in the modern church. They seem to 
think of The Holy Spirit as an influence or an 
emotional experience. It is hardly too much to 
say that like those disciples of John they "Have 
not so much as heard whether there be any Holy 
Ghost/' 

A new and last dispensation began on the day 
of Pentecost. That day which marked the pour- 
ing out of The Spirit on all flesh that would 
receive Him. Jesus was on earth in a brief 
ministry of about three years. He was then the 



J2 THE PROMISED GIFT 

central figure and administrator. But when He 
went away, He said He would send another, even 
The Holy Spirit to take His place and reveal 
Himself more fully than when He was on earth. 
That person has come — the blessed Spirit — to 
take charge of the spiritual kingdom on earth. 
Hence this dispensation is called The Dispensa- 
tion of The Holy Ghost. 

He is treated much in this dispensation as 
Jesus was when He was on earth. He is despised 
and rejected of men as Jesus was. Men esteem 
him of little importance as they did Jesus. Much 
religion is carried on that has no more use for 
the Holy Spirit than the religionists of Jesus' day 
had for Him. 

One of the many ways in which some slight 
Him is to refer to Him as simply an influence. 
Therefore they are willing to get along without 
His indwelling. 

Men attempt to preach and perform duty rely- 
ing on human wisdom and strength and utter- 
ance more than on Him. 

But Jesus said, He is a person. In John (16: 
7-8) Jesus says of The Holy Spirit, "If I depart 
I will send HIM unto you and when HE is come, 
HE will reprove the world of sin." And again in 



THE PROMISED GIFT 73 

the thirteenth and fourteenth verses, He says, 
"When HE, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will 
guide you into all truth, for HE shall not speak 
of HIMSELF; but whatsoever HE shall hear 
that shall HE speak and HE shall show you 
things to come. HE shall glorify me: for HE 
shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you." 

Here it will be seen that the personal pronouns 
"HE" and "HIM" are used nine times. The 
Spirit is the central figure of this dispensation. 
And no one can be a strong, abiding Christian 
in this day who undertakes to slight Him. 

He says, "Ye are the temples of The Holy 
Spirit." Paul says to the Corinthians, "Know 
ye not that ye are the temples of God and The 
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (I. Cor. 3:16). 
Not an influence, but a person dwells in the soul 
that has received this gift. He is the person who 
convicts, regenerates and sanctifies in order that 
He may come to dwell in the heart, which HE 
claims for His abode. 

Some people want Him just for the help He 
gives and the graces He brings with Him. Others 
want Him for His own priceless self. He is to 
The Spirit of man what bread is to the hungry 
child. 



74 THE PROMISED GIFT 

Dr. S. A. Keen used to tell of a man who went 
away from home to California during "The gold 
fever" and remained away a long time. He pros- 
pered greatly and sent home to his family many 
costly gifts. After a time, they wrote him that 
his gifts were very fine and that they appreciated 
them very highly, but they were more anxious to 
see him and urged him to come home. 

There are some people who seem to think more 
of what The Spirit gives than of having Him as 
an abiding Comforter. Charles Wesley says: 

"Thy gifts, alas! cannot suffice, 
Unless thyself be given; 
Thy presence makes my paradise, 
And where thou art is heaven." 

Some want the gifts of tongues, or healing 
or eloquence or power for their own gratifica- 
tion. But there are others who desire to have 
Him as the Abiding Comforter. 

Some, as we have had occasion to remark be- 
fore, want Him in order to give them "Power 
for service" merely. But others are willing to 
have Him in the temple of the heart, for eternal 
worship and communion. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 75 



CHA±°TER XII. 



OUR SPECIALTY. 



It is often said, "I believe in holiness, but I do 
not believe in making a specialty of it." This 
criticism is often raised against those who preach 
holiness that they are specialists. As if it were 
a crime to make a specialty of holiness. If it 
is no sin or misdemeanor to be a specialist on 
other subjects, why this stigma as regards the 
most important thing in this world or any other 
world ? 

We understand that in this age a man best 
succeeds in that to which he gives special atten- 
tion. It is no sin to be a specialist in either the 
professions or trades and why is it not commend- 
able in the great business of life which is prepara- 
tion for eternity? 

Those who offer this objection admit that there 
is an experience called holiness or entire sancti- 
fication. They make no argument against the 



76 THE PROMISED GIFT 

doctrine, but for some reason think it should not 
be made a specialty. 

TO BE AT OUR BEST WE OUGHT TO 
MAKE A SPECIALTY OF SOMETHING, 
AND WE CAN DO NO BETTER THAN TO 
MAKE A SPECIALTY OF THE BEST 
THING THERE IS. 

The Apostle tells us to "follow peace with all 
men and that sanctification without which no 
man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). That 
which a man follows in life is his special calling. 
We suppose that those who object to holiness as 
a specialty, do it on the ground that to make it 
a specialty is to neglect other vital interests. 
Herein lies their mistake. Those who think mak- 
ing a specialty of holiness is to neglect other vital 
doctrines and experiences show both their ignor- 
ance of the experience and of its special advo- 
cacy. 

There is no church in which the charge is made 
more against certain preachers and teachers, that 
they neglect other vital doctrines, than The Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. But those unfortunately 
who make this criticism betray their ignorance of 
the whole matter. In fact holiness is the main 
wheel that moves all the system and preserves 



THE PROMISED GIFT JJ 

a beautiful unity of all the parts of our holy re- 
ligion. It radiates out into the whole life and 
every department of Christian and church life, 
r.nd gives every part its due proportion. Mr. 
Wesley said, where the doctrine was preached 
constantly, explicitly and emphatically the work 
of God prospered in all its branches. The Board 
of Bishops, who are supposed to be good author- 
ity on the subject and to know just what they 
are talking about, said in their Episcopal address 
in 1824, "Holiness is the main cord that binds 
us together. Relax this, and you loosen the whole 
system. This will appear more evident if we 
call to mind the original design of Methodism. 
It was to raise up and preserve a holy people. 
This was the principal object which Mr. Wesley, 
who under God, was the great founder of our 
order, had in view. To this end all the doctrines 
believed and preached by the Methodists tend." 
These words are worth pondering by all Meth- 
odists who stigmatize their brethren for making 
a specialty of holiness. 

Such an experience as entire sanctification once 
realized will make its possessor a specialist in- 
deed. We should be inclined to disbelieve in this 
doctrine to which the Bible gives chief place and 



78 THE PROMISED GIFT 

which its professors declare is so wondrous, if 
they acted as if they had a trifling affair on 
their hands who possessed it. Jesus once said, 
"No man also having drunk old wine desireth 
new, for he saith the old is better" (Luke 5:39). 
Those who taste the Pentecostal wine are spoiled 
for all other kinds. 

When the merchantman seeking goodly pearls 
found and invested his all in "The pearl of great 
price" he made his fortune in one investment. 
His whole life and interest were "in that pearl. 
We have an idea that he cared more to talk about 
that than anything else. He could afford to be 
called a specialist or anything else as long as he 
possessed the pearl. 

Let us again look at this illustration of Jesus 
in the light of this truth and see how significant 
it is. "If his son shall ask bread." A hungry 
child is. a specialist on the subject of food. 
Hunger and thirst are the strongest propensities 
of the physical nature. Let a healthy man be 
denied his proper food for a few hours beyond 
the usual time and he becomes a decided specialist 
on the subject. Let the lack of food be prolonged 
still further and he becomes a more decided 
specialist on the food question. Let the abstinence 



THE PROMISED GIFT 79 

be prolonged a little further and there is danger 
that he will become a brute or a madman, who 
can think of nothing else in his waking hours 
and dream of nothing else except food. A hungry 
child is a specialist on the subject of food and 
the more you put him off the more of a specialist 
he becomes. 

Every truly regenerated person is a child of 
God and just as hungry for holiness as a healthy 
child for bread. It is a mistake to say that it is 
the people who have received the gift of The 
Holy Spirit who are the specialists. A truly re- 
generate child of God has an intense special long- 
ing after all the fullness of God. And Jesus pro- 
nounced a blessing on such specialists, saying, 
"Blessed are they which dp hunger and thirst 
after righteousness. " 

We have seen people take crying children in 
their arms and try to divert their minds to other 
things. We have seen them take them to the door 
and point to the moon in the sky and say, 
"Moony, Moony; see the moon/' to take away 
their attention, but it was only momentary. The 
cry soon returned. We have seen preachers try 
to entertain their hungry congregations by dis- 



8o THE PROMISED GIFT 

courses on the sciences, the Milky way, the moon 
and astronomy and so forth. 

It diverted but a little while and there came 
the old cry in the soul for The Bread which God 
designs for all His hungry people — The Gift of 
The Koly Ghost. They asked bread, they re- 
ceived a stone, if not a serpent of false doctrine 
of a scorpion of error. But Our Heavenly Father 
has bread for His children, even if they do not 
obtain it in the weekly distribution. He has a 
great storehouse accessible all through the week. 

If we are called one idea people for making 
the most we can of the greatest thing, we can 
afford to be so-called. We had better be known 
for association with one great idea than for a 
thousand little ones, for there are many very 
trivial things on which people are frittering away 
their time, energy and talent. 

We remember the old fable told by Aesop of 
the lioness and the fox. The latter boasted to the 
lioness that she had four whelps while the lioness 
had but one. "It is true," said the lioness, "but 
mine is a lion." 

So we feel. If it be true that it is a great 
idea we are willing to be known for our adherence 
to it. If we are as small as a barnacle we had 



THE PROMISED GIFT 8l 

rather be known as adhering to some grand old 
battleship than some rotten old log. 

This cne "idea" is so great that it takes in all 
of life's duties, and privileges. It heightens all 
of life's joys, assuages its sorrows, fits us to live, 
keeps us prepared to die; it will keep us out of 
hell and be our permit into heaven, and when we 
get there, it will make no difference whether we 
were known for anything else on earth or not. 

There are many things which we neglect that 
we shall never regret. But we shall certainly 
regret if we are neglecters of this. The man who 
does not believe in making a specialty of holiness 
while active in every day life will be glad to 
make it a specialty in the hour of death. We 
have never know a specialist on holiness sorry 
on his death bed on that account. 

God has given us but one book and that makes 
a specialty of holiness. It is called the Holy 
Bible. There is but one Holy Spirit and His 
specialty is to make men holy. We should be 
afraid to stigmatize His work as some do. God 
has prepared but one heaven and that is holy. 
And we confess to a desire to make it our special 
life work to get there. God has made but one 
way to that heaven and He calls it "The way of 



82 THE PROMISED GIFT 

holiness. " It is the grand trunk line. If we 
wanted to go to New York we should make a 
specialty of the road that goes to New York. As 
we want to go to heaven we are making a spe- 
cialty of the road that goes there. We are in 
love with the sentiment of the poet: 

"The way the holy prophets went, 
The road that leads from banishment, 
The King's highway of holiness, 
I'll go for all His paths are peace." 



THE PROMISED GIFT 83 



CHAPTER XIII. 



HE LOVES TO BESTOW IT. 



The more we study this wonderful illustration 
of Jesus the more we see in it. An increasing 
number of lessons come out of it. 

In addition to the lessons already noted we find 
this, Godlovesto give this gift to His children. This 
is a truth that needs emphasis because so many 
seem to think He has to be entreated with great 
vehemence. They think we must agonize in order 
to get personal attention. 

He appeals to our love for our children to show 
us that He delights to give The Spirit to His 
children. 

How delightful it is to the heart of a loving 
parent to furnish food for his offspring. A good 
parent enjoys feeding his children as much as 
he does to eat himself. 

Jesus says that God delights even more, to give 
The Holy Spirit to His children. He is Father- 
hood in an unlimited measure. Shall we under- 



84 THE PROMISED GIFT 

take to say that we are more kind to our chil- 
dren that He to His? Shall we say that He 
has to be teased to satisfy the cravings of His 
children, when we delight to satisfy our chil- 
dren? O, that we could get all the children of 
God to see that God really loves to bestow this 
gift ! that His infinite heart is set on doing it ! 
If they realized how He loves to give, would real 
Christians look on this as a duty to be feared 
and shunned? 

If we catch the significance of this great truth 
we will no longer be tempted to think or say, "It 
is not for me." If the real meaning of this illus- 
tration gets into our souls we will no longer be 
excusing ourselves with the thought, "This gifr 
was only for the Apostles of old." 

If men really got a fair understanding of this 
illustration of Jesus we would not hear any more 
such taik as some pulpits render that "No one 
ever received The Spirit since Pentecost." 

God loves to bestow the Gift. Stop your ob- 
jecting! God loves to bestow The Gift, go to 
rejoicing ! It is Your Heavenly Father who loves 
to bestow it — not a stranger, but one that loves 
you. He knows how much you need it and has 
made. arrangements for you to have it. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 85 

See how much He has done to make it pos- 
sible for you to receive it. Bethlehem, Jerusalem, 
Gethsemane and Pentecost all prove that you 
may have this gift. All the dispensations of God 
in His dealings with this world were for the 
end and object that you might have it. 

How difficult still it is to make men see that 
God has set His heart on the reception of this 
Gift by His church! Will we delight to feed 
our children and dishonor God by doubting Him 
here? Will we make our love for our offspring 
appear greater than His love for His children? 



86 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER XIV. 



BEFORE WE DIE. 



A great school of religious thought teaches that 
we cannot receive the sin-consuming Spirit until 
the hour and article of death. 

Thousands of sincere believers have imbibed 
this error and are struggling with inbred sin, 
when they might be free. 

We find nothing in this wonderful illustration 
of Jesus to sustain any such dogma. Nor do we 
find anything anywhere in the Scriptures that 
teaches it. 

Earthly parents do not allow their hungry chil- 
dren to go unsatisfied when they have the power 
to satisfy their needs. Every real Christian has 
this desire for purity of heart implanted by The 
Spirit. It is a sure token that such a soul is born 
of God. Did God implant that desire to mock 
us? to tease us? Surely not. And yet it is 
mockery if God does not propose to feed us 
when we are hungry. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 87 

Does a good parent tantalize his children by 
constantly stimulating the appetite and then not 
feeding them. If ye being earthly would not do 
that, do you mean to accuse your Heavenly 
Father of that of which you would not be guilty ? 
Yet this is the real meaning of that doctrine. 

How does The Father deal with us in this 
matter ? By constantly urging this gift upon us. 
He does this in His word in various languages. 
Sometimes He says, "Be filled with The Spirit," 
or "Eat ye that which is good and let your soul 
delight itself in fatness," or "Blessed are they 
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
for they shall be filled," or (in another place) 
"God is able to make all grace abound toward 
you." These and other commands and promises 
too numerous to quote, together with the thirst- 
ing of the deathless nature within us make this 
matter too apparent to every one who loves God, 
it seems to us, to doubt that He wants to feed 
His hungry children with a satisfying portion 
here in this world. 

Is it not a caricature on Him, who is more 
tender and loving than the most doting parent 
that ever felt his heart respond to the needy cry 
of his child, to represent Him as having awak- 



88 THE PROMISED GIFT 

ened desires that He does not intend to satisfy 
when we need it. 

If the command "Be filled with The Spirit" 
given to God's children is only for the hour of 
death, why may not the command "Thou shalt 
not steal" be relegated to the same hour? And 
why not all the commandments ? If we can take 
our time for one commandment, why not for all ? 
But all God's commandments are in the present 
tense. 

Away with this old heathenish theology that 
God seeks to tantalize His children ! This illus- 
tration of Jesus explodes that heresy. 

The heathen mythology taught that a wicked 
king by the name of Tantulus was, after death, 
doomed to the awful punishment, in the lost 
world, of ever seeing before him the most luxuri- 
ous viands which fled from his grasp. While 
he was burning up with thirst a cup of water 
was before him which always slipped away from 
his reach. And this was his eternal doom. From 
his name Tantulus, we get the word TAN- 
TALIZE. 

Are we willing to believe that Our Heavenly 
Father is seeking to tantalize His children with 



THE PROMISED GIFT 89 

this hungering within and these commands and 
promises without? 

Thank God we need make no mistake in this 
matter. Jesus makes it clear in this wonderful 
illustration. And did not the same Holy Spirit 
fill a good man, Zacharias, and lead him to say 
years before Jesus began to preach, "That we 
being delivered out of the hand of all our enemies 
might serve Him in holiness and righteousness 
before Him all the days of our life" (See Luke 

174-75). 

Zacharias was filled with The Spirit, so was 
his son, John the Baptist ; so was Elizabeth, and 
the disciples at Pentecost and the converts at 
Samaria and countless multitudes since. 



90 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER XV. 
"for special work and workers only/' 

One way in which unbelief seeks to hide its 
weakness on this subject is to assert that the Gift 
is for special work and workers only — for preach- 
ers or missionaries, or church officers. It was 
all right for prophets and Apostles, but not for 
every-day people, who mingle in very ordinary 
affairs. 

This is not only the language of unbelief, but 
of ignorance of the word of God. We may say 
of such what Jesus said to those of Emmaus, 
that they are "Slow of heart to believe all that the 
prophets have spoken. " 

Jesus says that this is the gift for any child 
of God who asks for it. The Lord has no pets 
or favorites except those who do His will with- 
out regard to rank or station. If you are a child 
of God and ask aright He will as surely bestow 
the Gift upon you as upon those of Pentecost. 

What saith the Scripture on this point ? Hear 



THE PROMISED GIFT 91 

Peter as he explains it on the day of Pentecost, 
"This is that which was spoken by the prophet 
Joel : and it shall come to pass in the last days, 
saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all 
flesh and your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy, and your young men shall see visions 
and your old men shall dream dreams and on my 
servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out 
in those days of my Spirit; and they shall pro- 
phesy" (Acts 2:16-18). 

Notice this gift is not to be reserved for a 
few, but it is for the servants and handmaids of 
God, sons and daughters, old men and young men 
are to be its recipients. All ages and both sexes 
are to possess it. 

A careful study will show that at Pentecost 
even, others besides the twelve Apostles received 
the gift. There were the one hundred and twenty 
and the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus. 
And how many of that five hundred that Jesus 
met after His resurrection received it there we 
do not know (See Acts 1 113-14) . 

This error that only a few can be possessed of 
the Gift evidently arises from the fact that so 
many think that the power to work miracles was 
the special gift of Pentecost. That is not true, 



92 THE PROMISED GIFT 

for the disciples had the power to heal the sick 
and cast out devils before Pentecost. It gave 
them no more miraculous power than they had 
before. We have already shown in another chap- 
ter, that the work of The Spirit, which He is in 
this world to carry on in a special manner, is not 
imparting miraculous power, but cleansing the 
heart and establishing the graces of love, joy and 
peace in their fullness. 

He comes here into the heart to enable us to 
glorify God, not by working the wonders of 
legerdemain, like the magicians of Egypt, but to 
so fill us that we can glorify God by the greatest 
of miracles — a holy heart and life in the midst 
of a wicked world. 

This work He proposes to do in the hearts of 
the laity as well as the clergy. It requires just as 
much power to enable right living as power to 
preach with unction. Of what use to inspire men 
to tell the people how to live right if He will not 
inspire and help the people so to live? 

According to Jesus the great result of Pentecost . 
is not miracle working power for a few, but wit- 
nessing power for all — even the humblest. He 
does not say a word about what men call the 
marvelous in connection with Pentecost, but He 



THE PROMISED GIFT 93 

does say it was given to enable them to be 
efficient witnesses, Hear Him! "Ye shall receive 
power after that The Holy Ghost is come upon 
you, and ye shall be WITNESSES unto me" 
(Acts 1 :8). He does not even mention preaching 
here, because while He calls some to preach He 
calls all to be witnesses. 

We are glad Jesus did not say, "Ye are my 
orators/' or "My statesmen/' or "My scholars. " 
But He calls all, both the ministry and laity to 
be witnesses. It is a sad day when it is not ex- 
pected that the truth uttered by the pulpit shall 
be witnessed to by the pew. And it will be 
equally sad when it is supposed that only the 
laity are to be witnesses and the pulpit may be 
excused. 

No preacher has any right to be in the pulpit 
who has not experienced the truths which he 
voices publicly. 

Every Christian needs this Gift, on the farm, 
in the workshop, in the kitchen, at the desk, be- 
hind the counter, in the nursery, in all the avoca- 
tions of life, in public and in private, to enable 
him to live aright and to give unction to his 
testimony, as much as the disciples needed it at 
Pentecost. It may be said that their need was 



94 THE PROMISED GIFT 

urgent at that time, when beginning a new dis- 
pensation in order that they might get Chris- 
tianity established, but is it not just as necessary 
to keep Christianity established? And is there 
not a crying need in these times for the Gift that 
will keep us saved and give power to our testi- 
mony ? Was there ever any more need of it than 
to-day ? 

Until the time comes that God's people have a 
bubbling over experience that will attract the 
attention of men as it did at Pentecost, the cause 
of God will continue to go halting and limping. 
Jesus Christ needs samples to show to this world 
more than He needs costly cathedrals, mitred 
priesthood, elaborate rituals or polished orators. 

Holy living is what the world is most in need 
of at this time. We have seen an ordinary kero- 
sene lamp on the headlight of a locomotive send 
its rays hundreds of yards ahead illuminating 
the pathway. The secret of its power was the 
reflector behind it. We have seen a very ordi- 
nary testimony, broken and limping in its lan- 
guage, illuminate the way to heaven and make 
that way so attractive that multitudes wanted to 
go too. It was the holy life behind, that made 
the testimony so powerful. God gives every one, 



THE PROMISED GIFT 95 

the privilege of having such a life and such a 
testimony, whether priest or layman. And He 
expects us all to be witnesses, but we are not 
fully qualified until we have been to "The Upper 
Room." 



96 THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE ARGUMENT OF JESUS. 

One of the most accurate definitions of the 
carnal mind is that given by the inspired writer 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He calls it "An 
evil heart of unbelief" (Heb. 3:12). 

The natural heart of man is averse to the 
things of God. It hates the light. It is not 
difficult to make men believe in the existence of 
God or that He has revealed His will, or in the 
fallen nature of man even, but that He will save 
us from all sin and make us clean and pure in 
heart is a doctrine that the evil nature of man 
resents. 

Man has become so steeped in sin and so help- 
lessly enslaved by it, and has tried in vain so 
many times to break his chains, by his own feeble 
strength, that he has settled back in despair, and 
estimates the ability of God by his own feeble 
strength. He has tacitly come to believe that 
Divine power would be as weak in the matter as 
his own strength. 



THE PROMISED GIFT 97 

Hence the ^reat work of revelation is to create 
in man confidence in the truth that God can and 
will save from all sin. So great is the task of 
convincing man that God means what He says, 
that after six thousand years of revelation, only 
a comparatively few people really read the plain 
statements of the Bible as to the salvation of the 
soul without modifying them or explaining them 
away. 

Most of the commentaries, that have been 
written on the Bible, have been written from the 
standpoint that we must sin and that we cannot- 
be delivered from all sin in this life. Adam 
Clarke, the great scholar, who was equally great 
in spiritual things, stands almost alone as a 
commentator, who declares entire deliverance 
from all sin. 

More than this, so great is this unbelief that 
God has condescended to come down to our level 
in certain particulars, just as He allowed Israel 
to send the ten spies into the promised land. 

He condescends to reason with man on the 
subject, or at least to invite man to reason on the 
matter. He might justly have passed us by, be- 
cause of our unbelief that throws the lie in His 
face. But He says, "Come now and let us rea- 



98 THE PROMISED GIFT 

son together, saith the Lord, though your sins 
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 
though they be red like crimson they shall be 
as wool" (Isa. 1 :i8). 

Not content with offering to reason with hu- 
man stubbornness and unbelief He goes farther. 
Hear it ye who are as wilfully stubborn to be- 
lieve in entire cleansing in this age ! He actually 
puts himself on oath on the subject. Think of 
it ! Hear Him through the lips of Zacharias, His 
servant, thus, "The oath which He sware unto 
our father Abraham, that He would grant unto 
us, that we being delivered out of the 
hands of our enemies might serve 
Him without fear, in holiness and 
righteousness before him, all the days of our life" 
(Luke 1:73-75). What condescension ! But men 
to-day are as slow of heart as ever to believe in 
the truths of salvation. 

D. L. Moody first called attention to the "Much 
mores" of Romans 5. Five times in that won- 
derful chapter does Paul use that phrase in ad- 
vancing his unanswerable arguments to the 
caviling Jews as he proves the superiority of the 
gospel to the dispensation of the law. 

But Jesus in this wonderful illustration turns 






THE PROMISED GIFT 99 

His argument with these words of irresistible 
logic, "HOW MUCH MORE/' "If you earthly 
parents will provide for the physical hunger of 
your children, HOW MUCH MORE will your 
Heavenly Father provide for the spiritual hunger 
of His children?" 

Hear it ye cavilers and objectors ! Ye fighters 
and oppcsers ! Ye men with your pride of learn- 
ing! Ye men of big heads and little hearts! 
Jesus says, "How much more." It ought to drive 
us all to our knees in shame and contrition that 
we ever even hinted at or had a suggestion to 
doubt in any of the recesses of our hearts. Hear 
it ! Jesus says He is more willing to give the 
cleansing, penetrating abiding Spirit to us than 
we are to feed our children ! Hear it ye RE- 
DEEMED and never cease to praise Him who 
uttered it! 

If there is any form of argument, proof or rea- 
soning that has been omitted to give credence to 
the great fact that God waits to cleanse the heart 
from all its defilement, we cannot conceive what 
it can be. And yet thousands are called by the 
name of Jesus and profess His religion and yet 
are without this best Gift of God. 



IOO THE PROMISED GIFT 



CHAPTER XVII. 



ASKING AND RECEIVING. 



One of the great mysteries of thef gospel to the 
natural man is its simplicity, especially in the 
manner in which its benefits are obtained. 

God has made it so simple that the humblest 
can obtain it, and at the same time the wisest 
are puzzled by its depths and stumble over its 
terms. The wisest philosopher cannot obtain it 
any easier than a child, and often times his wis- 
dom stands in his way, because it is not obtained 
by reasoning, or philosophical research. This is 
a great stumbling block to the carnal mind. Men 
want to see into it before they embrace it, in- 
stead of taking it on trust. This is the reason 
that the doctrine of the new birth so staggers 
the worldling. This is the reason that the doc- 
trine of entire sanctification so bewilders the 
carnal professor of religion. The worldling says 
he cannot comprehend the new birth. The op- 
poser of the second work of grace finds the same 



THE PROMISED GIFT IOI 

difficulty in seeing into it and goes away and 
says it is not Scriptural, when others accept it 
in the divine way and are enjoying its benefits. 

All would be willing to have The Gift if they 
could buy it. But God does not keep it for sale. 
The pride some men exhibit in alluding to them- 
selves as ' k self-made men" is an illustration that 
man loves to make his own salvation and wants 
God to come to his terms in the matter. 

If the way were not narrow it would be more 
popular. But it is so narrow that all candidates 
have to strip off all self-righteousness and self- 
sufficiency. Men cannot enter this way with 
the blare of trumpets and a triumphal display. 
The man who goes in it has to admit his depend - 
ence and unworthiness and come to the divine 
terms. Although these terms are simple yet men 
make hard w T ork of it, because they try to bring 
God to their terms. 

That is the reason that most people who seek 
salvation usually have a hard time trying to get 
it in their way. That is the reason so many have 
a hard time seeking the Gift of The Holy Spirit. 

"My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither 
are your ways my ways" (Isa. 55 :8). Man's way 
is to do something great — make some great effort 



102 THE PROMISED GIFT 

of some kind. God's way is that man shall ask 
and receive by simple faith. 

We often hear people talk about Wrestling- 
Jacob and how he wrestled all night to get the 
blessing. But they forget that his wrestling did 
not bring the blessing. After he had threshed 
his strength all out and could wrestle no more 
then he obtained the blessing. Perhaps the Lord 
had to let us all wrestle it out until we found 
that we could do nothing and then we had to 
trust. 

The terms of obtaining the Gift are two-fold. 
I. We must ask. It must be made a subject of 
request — just as the hungry child asks definitely 
for food. Anything that is worth having is worth 
the asking. Jesus says, He will give The Holy 
Spirit to them that ASK HIM. Have you asked 
him? 

2. We must ask in faith, or in other words we 
must receive it, for faith is the hand of the soul 
that reaches out for the gift. God has given 
us the power to reach out — in other words, the 
power to believe. A gift is not a gift until we 
take it. No one can make us a present until we 
are willing to receive it. Many people are ask- 
ing God for this gift and at the same time keep 



THE PROMISED GIFT 103 

their hands behind them when it is offered. Let 
us remember that faith is the act of receiving. 
We may see this taught wonderfully in the first 
chapter of the Gospel of St. John. He tells us 
in the twelfth verse how to become regenerated, 
in these words, "But as many as received Him, 
to them gave He power to become the sons of 
God, even to them that believe on His name." 
Here we find that by a receptive act of faith we 
become regenerate. In the sixteenth verse He 
tells us how we obtain the fullness of The Spirit, 
"And of His fullness have all we received, and 
grace for grace." The fullness is received just 
as was the new birth — by faith. 

How many people are asking but doing no re- 
ceiving ? 

Bishop Edwards, of the United Brethren 
Church, had been seeking this grace for many 
years in vain. At last in despair he said, "Lord, 
why do I not receive it? Thou hast said, 'Ask 
and receive/ and I have been asking for many 
years." He stopped a moment and then said, 
"Thou hast said 'ask and receive.' I have done 
a great deal of asking, but no receiving. Lord 
I receive the gift." That moment the gift was 
bestowed and that moment was the turning point 



104 THE PROMISED GIFT 

of his life to which he ever afterwards referred 
as a crisis in his life. God has given you the 
power to receive. Now put your will into it and 
tell God that you do receive the Holy Comforter. 
Amen. 

"Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, 

And lighten with celestial fire. 

Thou the anointing Spirit art, 

Who dost Thy sevenfold gifts impart. 

Thy blessed unction from above 

Is comfort, life, and fire of love. 



Enable with perpetual light 

The dullness of our blinded sight; 

Anoint and cheer our soiled face 

With the abundance of Thy grace ; 

Keep far our foes, give peace at home; 

Where Thou art Guide no ill can come. 






Teach us to know th/e Father, Son, 
And Thee of both to be but one; 
That through the ages- all along, 
This may be our endiess song: 
Praise to Thy eternal merit, 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." 



t^AY 31 19§G 



pi 

79 



